Chapter 1: Goodbye. Maria the human.
Author's notes: Hello there to all readers. Thank you for reading. I feel that Maria Robotnik's character could have been used a lot more in the series aside from just being a motivation for Shadow to destroy the world. There are several things that make this blonde cutie in an amazing blue dress distinctive as a character.
1. She's the second human introduced aside from Dr Eggman, and the first young human (she's 12). This means that she technically inspired Christopher Thorndyke and his friends who are also 12 like her, and would appear later in the Sonic X series.
2. She's the first human introduced to actually not be evil and trying to destroy the world for petty reasons. Both Gerald Robotnik (Eggman's grandpa) and Ivo Robotnik (Eggman) want to destroy the world for different reasons each. This also makes her the only "kind" member of the Robotnik/Eggman family, which makes everything involving her even more tragic.
3. The way she once fawned over Shadow is incredibly similar to how Chris Thorndyke would be in love with Sonic in the later Sonic X series. So much so that Chris sharing his insights with Shadow in Sonic X was enough to convince Shadow to renounce his bitter hatred for humanity and remember his promise to Maria instead.
4. She has a very similar design to Helen from Sonic X; a blonde disabled girl in a wheelchair with a pink dress. The only main difference is that Maria has a blue dress and hairband alongside a dark blue jacket, and that Maria's illness allows her to walk and run unlike Helen but makes her incapable of breathing Earth's air without damaging her immune system.
Both have a deep love for flowers and living animals, and both are excitable and brave despite their crippling disabilities. Some people even speculate that Helen is Maria's reincarnation.
5. Continuining on point 4 above. Sonic has dark blue fur, while Amy has pink fur. Maria has a dark blue jacket with a pale blue dress, while Helen has a pink and white dress, which changes to an orange dress with a grey jacket when she gets older in the 3rd season of Sonic X. In Sonic X; Sonic had an entire episode where he helped Helen go on an adventure in her wheelchair, while in many fanfictions and fan-made stories; Amy is the first member of Sonic's team that Maria meets upon waking up and venturing to Earth.
Amy has an unrequited and not reciprocated attraction towards Sonic, because he is the one who saved her life many times over.
So: Sonic = blue. Amy = pink. Maria = blue and Younger Helen = pink.
Sonic leaves Earth to go back to his own world (Mobius) after it is discovered that him staying on Earth will mess with time in the final episode of Sonic X season 2, so he has no choice but to leave Helen alone without anyone to take her on adventures in her wheelchair anymore. Chris gets to go and see Sonic one more time in Season 3, but he leaves Helen behind and only goes by himself.
Meaenwhile; Maria is effectively dead before the first Sonic Game even took place, meaning that she can only properly meet Sonic or his friends in fanfictions. This also means she never meets Amy, and Amy also really loves flowers and nature just like Maria; Amy's full name is Amy Rose just to hammer this point through.
So Helen and Maria's color palettes when compared side by side with the Sonic characters effectively mirrors the doomed love affair between Sonic and Amy.
Maria can also run much faster than Helen, similar to how Sonic can run much faster than Amy making her unable to keep up with him. While Maria has one single playable level in Sonic adventure 2, Helen has never been playable in any Sonic game whatsoever. This mirrors how Sonic is playable in almost every single game as the main character(The series is named after him after all), while Amy is only playable in a few games as a support character.
6. There is another well-known Japanese Series called Pokemon. In the first Pokemon movie, there is a very powerful purple psychic being with supernatural powers including the ability to move very quickly called "Mewtwo". Mewtwo went mad and tried to destroy the world after his best friend; a young blue-haired girl called "Amber Fuji" died in her test tube after failing to recover from a serious injury caused by a deadly car crash.
This was partially the fault of Amber's mad scientist father "Professor Fuji" going mad after losing Amber for good, and insulting Mewtwo. Similar to how Gerald Robotnik went mad after losing Maria, and convincing Shadow to go against his goal of making Maria happy and to destroy the world instead as his revenge.
Both Mewtwo and Shadow went on their killing spree after losing a young, weakened and sick human girl who tried to convince them that the world was beautiful despite its flaws. They were both also created by a mad scientist as a companion/protector to their young injured daughters.
Both Mewtwo and Shadow are the only survivors after both the mad scientist that created them and their young human girl companions have tragically been killed.
Both Mewtwo and Shadow have supernaturally strong powers that make them stronger than practically everything else around them. Mewtwo has very strong psychic abilities, while Shadow has Chaos control. Mewtwo has the highest base stat total of all Pokemon introduced in Generation 1, while Shadow is one of the few characters to consistently beat Sonic in any media they both appear in.
Both Mewtwo and Shadow also move at very fast speeds. Mewtwo has the second highest base speed total in Generation 1, only behind Electrode. Shadow is always shown to move faster than Sonic in any game or show they meet in.
Both Pokemon and Sonic are top-selling Nintendo titles that took the world by storm. They are also both dubbed by 4kids Studios, with several voice actors and actresses working on both shows.
Examples include: Veronica Taylor: Voices Ash Ketchum in Pokemon, voices Lindsey Thorndyke (Chris's mum) in Sonic X.
Lisa Ortiz: Voices Psychic gym leader Sabrina/ Fire gym leader Flannery and several others in Pokemon. Voices Amy Rose in Sonic X.
Amy Birnbuam: Voices Melody in Pokemon Movie 2, Dj Mary in the Pokemon Series. Voices Helen, Charmy Bee and Cosmo in Sonic X.
7. In another 4kids Anime called Yu-Gi-Oh, People who are killed in a Yu-Gi-Oh cards duel are said to be "sent to the Shadow realm". Shadow is a very kill-happy, violent and edgy character who even uses guns in many games he appears in, and often uses coarse and vulgar language. Yu-Gi-Oh also features a sick character called Serenity Wheeler (Also voiced by Amy's amazingly talented voice actress Lisa Ortiz) who is blind and has to be kept in a hospital.
Luckily; Serenity manages to recover and join the other main characters (Yugi, Tea, Joey and Mokuba), which neither Maria or Amber are able to do.
8. The final amazing point to make. Maria Robotnik's voice actress in every role in both the games and shows she's appeared in is called Rebecca Honig. The same voice actress who voiced Cream the rabbit, and Tikal the Echidna.
All three of these characters love flowers and nature.
All three hate violence and prefer to avoid fighting by any way necessary.
Both Tikal and Maria are also already dead before their respective series began.
Both Cream and Tikal have a Chao as their friend and battle partner (Cream's pet Chao is called Cheese). With how much Maria loves different animals and life in general, there is reason to believe she would have really loved to have a Chao as well.
If that's not mind blowing, I don't know what is. You cannot dislike Cream without also disliking the other amazing characters.
With all this being said, thank you for being here with me and on with the show.
Maria Point of view.
I smiled sadly and closed my eyes as I braced myself for the end. At the very least a death via being shot in the head by a sharp, speeding bullet would be quick and painless compared to slowly succumbing to the autoimmune hereditary disease that I was unlucky enough to be born afflicted with.
I don't remember exactly when it happened. All I know is that I fell unconscious during one of my joyful playdates with my beloved older cousin Ivo in a field full of beautiful blooming flowers. There were daiseies, tulips, roses, carnations and even a few foxgloves. The last thing I saw, was Ivo's face a mask of utter regret and sorrow before a sudden weakness seized me and darkness robbed me of my vision and my senses.
I woke to find myself in Space Colony ARK's medical bay surrounded by doctors, with Grandfather staring very anxiously at me, while quietly cursing my cousin Ivo's name under his breath.
"What happened to me grandfather? Why am I doing here in space?" I nervously inquired, still feeling a faint weakness in my chest that was making me incredibly sluggish. It was a pain that would never really heal, for it was the pain of my broken heart that lusted for the idyllic days on Earth spent smiling beside my cousin with my hand in his.
The pain that originated when you knew that you had lost something that could never be regained, through no fault of your own or anybody else. When you realized that eventually even the memory of the things you loved and lost would eventually leave you, making you question if they really ever existed or if your broken mind is just playing tricks and trying to sustain your fading soul with hopeful illusions of a lost fantasy from who knows where.
Nowadays when my grandfather and everyone abroad ARK tries to reassure me that I was born here and had lived my entire life as an proud citizen of the first self-sustaining space colony ever concieved, I feel mostly inclined to believe that they are simply acting in good faith and trying to deliver the harsh truth to me in the most sensitive way they know how. But a tiny part of me that I've buried within the deepest, darkest part of my memory that I've been afraid to recall; tells me that it's all a lie.
A white lie to be sure, and a light white lie at that. The sort of harmless fib you tell your beloved son or daughter when you realize that there's no comfort in the truth, and pain is all the truth will give them. It's hard to hold such sweet, caring people accountable for trying their best not to distress me any further over the several years I've been their honored and well treated guest.
I know that there are sweet delights awaiting me and my new friend; a black hedgehog named Shadow on the blue planet below me. I've seen them with my own eyes, and frolicked through them on bright, sunny days where the light of the warm and nurturing centre of the solar system bestowed its friendly face to the blue planet filled with life that was clearly its favorite.
Or that there would be, if that furious grown up holding that massive rifle would just lower the barrel and let me get into the escape pod with the saintly black hedgehog with fiery red eyes who had never let me down in all my years of being introduced to him.
I just had to talk him down. Persaude him that it was not worth his while to kill me or my friend whose supernatural abilities granted to him and him alone; had unfortunately made him a target for those hungry for power. There was not an iota of nastiness in Shadow's pure spirit, not a mean bone in his body. He struggled so much as to hurt a fly when one buzzed around him persistently and refused to move away when he tried to harmlessly swat at it.
But the gunman clearly didn't understand this. He had very obviously hardened his heart and deafened his ears to my pleas. His hand was shaking, but his glare was still hard and his aim remained firm. I had already activated the escape pod with Shadow already inside, using the DNA sensor on the control panel that would only recognize me and grandfather.
It would give anyone else who touched it a nasty shock that would fry their nervous system in seconds. Shadow inclusive and sadly cousin Ivo too, if grandfather's words about proofing the entire ARK system against in his words "A spineless, double-crossing delinquent not worth the space he took up on Earth or anywhere else".
There was no way for Shadow to activate it, and grandfather had already been imprisoned by the same militaristic government group that the gunman now threatening me belonged to. Only my handprint would be recognized, and only if the system detected a pulse. Slicing off my finger and pressing it to the scanner would have the same effect as an outsider touching the dangerous device. Grandfather was a careful man who wanted to take no risks.
Even Shadow's chaos control abilities which could quite literally alter reality itself, would not fool this sensitive device. It really was just I and I alone who could act as our ticket out of here, and the violent gunman had taken advantage of the situation like a keen hunter stalking his hapless prey in the night.
It was alright though. Perfectly alright. My NIDS disease meant that I would not survive long in Earth's less sterilized atmosphere anyway. Grandfather told me that ARK's air was passed through various filters to make it devoid of all bacteria and other micro-organisms that could trigger a fatal reaction from my diseased immune system, and so I had to stay on ARK for my own safety until his best scientific minds could finish work on a cure.
I would be dead on arrival. That was an exaggeration, since there were highly advanced spacesuits inside the escape pod conveniently equipped with enough oxygen for at least a few days, but the point still remained that even if I made it to Earth somehow; there was little hope for me now that my beloved new home and grandfather's pride and joy space colony ARK had been taken over.
Shadow could have a long and happy life if he just made it out of here alive. Grandfather had created him to have a near endless lifespan courtesy of his surgically augmented body which gave him the power to regenerate almost any damage his cells sustained. Age would not wither him, time would not destroy him. He would outlive all his creators including my grandfather who concieved the idea to bring him into being in the first place and who was like a father to him.
Eventually he would even outlive me; assuming that the average lifespan of an Italian human being from birth had not changed from 71.58 years the last time I checked the global fact database on my computer that was my only connection to the beautiful planet below this floating mechanical giant which had never ceased to unsettle me slightly every day I stayed here.
I can tell that part of the reason these soldiers are hunting Shadow down; is because of his immortality. They want to take him apart and conduct experiments on him so as to learn the secrets of his eternal life; which no other living creature in this universe shares with him. Just like the seekers of the Holy Grail in King Arthur's legend and that brilliant Indiana Jones explorer movie; they are willing to kill everyone standing in their way to an endless lifetime of eternal health and youth.
These soldiers all claim they want peace on Earth, and that grandfather's work is becoming a threat to the safety of governments worldwide. But both myself and Shadow (though sadly not poor grandfather) know this to be a complete and blatant lie. Grandfather wouldn't hurt a fly and the closest he ever got to being mean to anyone, is when he occasionally bad mouthed my older cousin Ivo for being a disgrace to the good Robotnik family name and a bad influence to me.
I once told him that once I got well enough to go back to Earth, the first thing I would do is visit Ivo to check he was alright and to tell him that I had never forgotten the promise we made together as kids. That we'd one day build "Robotnikland" together, since two eggheads with IQ 300 working side by side was better than one. It would be the pleasurable experience of a lifetime, a safe haven for the masses to flock together and forget their sorrows if only for a moment as they rode the cleverly designed rides that would make them scream their hearts out in joy.
Grandfather responded by banging his fist on the table, and hissing like a snake while he quietly but sternly ordered me to never even speak Ivo's name ever again because of how foul a mood Ivo put him into. His face was fiery red, and his eyes were pitch black. He was growling savagely under his breath like a vicious lion when it readies itself to pounce upon a helpless gazelle not yet aware of its presence.
That night at age 9, was the first time I saw grandfather truly angry at anyone. It filled my heart with cold fear that never truly dissipated even to this day. I had seen first hand just how powerful of an emotion human hatred could be, and in doing so had gazed into the darkest abyss that mankind had ever dug themselves into.
But none of this really mattered now. In a moment it would all be over, and I would never have to fear anything ever again. All the aches and pains in my body would fade to nothingness. All the white noise that had been deafening my ears would turn to serene silence perfect for meditation. All my selfish desires, my causeless grudges and my cruel thoughts would dissapear, for I would never have to think again.
It was such a good way to die. Sacrificing my own limited life for an unlimited one that could potentially last until the end of time itself if he was simply careful. If anyone had to be killed; why not let it be someone who had little time to live anyway? It was both a morally right and scientifically logical decision. My final decision.
I smiled and closed my eyes. Wonderful people and beautiful sights were waiting for Shadow on the planet below. It was a pity that I couldn't fulfil the promise of going to Earth with him together, but such was life sometimes.
But then in the final decisive moment, something truly miraculous and something truly terrible occured. An event that to this day still haunts my dreams. Shadow made a decision. A noble and terrifying decision.
Shadow waved his hand from his position in the already closed escape pod, and vanished into thin air. A bright flash of green light engulfed him as a brighter flash of the same green light blinded me completely. Shadow was using Chaos control.
Then the light faded and I found myself in the cramped confines of the very escape pod Shadow had placed himself inside just a second ago. With tears in my eyes, I realized with horrible guilt just what he had done. He had teleported himself to my position in front of the gunman who had already pulled the trigger to release the speeding bullet that would certainly kill me.
The bullet struck the black and red hedgehog with the most beautiful crimson eyes squarely in his chest, and gashed a gaping wound open causing a puddle of red blood to pour onto the metal floor around him as he groaned in dreadful pain.
While it seemed unlikely that a supernatural being as powerful as Shadow would die from an injury as superficial as a bullet, I would later learn that the specific brand of ammunition the agents who infiltrated ARK were carrying were specifically designed around piercing all the protective barriers that protected Shadow from most forms of mundane injuries. "Anti-ChaotiX ammunition" they were termed.
The gunman raised his rifle above his head and whopped for joy. He was very clearly over the moon with pride at slaughtering my best friend and guardian who'd protected me ever since I arrived on ARK. He wasn't just a mean man. He wasn't even human. He was a monster.
Shadow was badly wounded but not yet dead. As the gunman briefly dropped his guard to bask in the glory of killing the most valuable target on the bounty list of the agency that had intruded upon my humble haven, Shadow crawled weakly to the control panel that I had been at just a second ago and hammered the launch button with the last of his strength.
"Maria. You can't die like this. You deserve better than this. YOU DESERVE TO LIVE!" He shrieked passionately into the silver earpiece I was wearing on my right ear to keep in contact with him as we escaped ARK together.
"Remember this Maria...It was not your choice." He quietly whispered as he coughed up a puddle of bloody spit signalling that his final moment was nigh.
"Emergency launch protocol, activated" ARK's computer emotionlessly announced, as the escape pod's powerful thrusters began to whirr into life.
"Shadow! No!" I cried in vain, as the evil agent's maniacal laughter continued to sound through the earpiece still attatched to the edge of my right ear, whose eardrum was on the verge of breaking apart from the cacaphony of awful noises it was picking up.
I thought for certain this would be the end. But then the laughter ceased and was replaced by a scream and then a desperate groan, as the sound of crackling thunder pulsed in the background. Somehow despite his fatal injuries, Shadow had used his mighty Chaos control powers to take down the wicked man who'd made an attempt on my life in an attempt to take Shadow's
"Maria. You there?" Shadow's weak voice rang clearly and firmly once the dying moans of the gunman died away seconds later.
"Yes. It's me. Shadow. I'm here." I shouted back as the ARK seemed to get smaller and smaller in the distance. "Don't leave me Shadow! I can't live without you. You were my EVERYTHING!" I begged, practically shrieking the final word.
"Maria." Shadow proudly announced, cool as ice in the face of death. "I was happy and proud to be your friend. The last thing I could do was to take you out of this wretched place and grant you your last wish of seeing Earth as you always prayed for. Keep me close in your dreams, and I will never die. I will always be with you, Maria. If you do not wish to live for yourself (for I know you to be a selfless and compassionate spirit of hope among a race of backstabbing rogues and dirty cheats), then live for me."
"Shadow!" I wept. "No! I never meant for this to happen. I always wanted the two of us to go and experience all the wonders of Earth. You made a promise to me."
"And you made a promise that you would never give up hope." He snidely retorted, his voice getting frailer by the syllable. "Do not let this one evil man's actions break you Maria. I said that I would come with you to Earth when you got better to help everyone there, but now you're going to have to help them yourself."
He sighed and coughed painfully. He was clearly on his last leg with but one ounce of his breath remaining. The grim reaper was coming to claim him and there was nothing my dearest friend could do.
"Maria...Let these be my final words as my precious time with you draws to a close. Be the change you wish to see in the world, and never forget that it was your kindness that gave me my purpose for living. Your kindness which gave me my faith and confidence in humanity. It is your kindness that lets me now finally rest in peace having fulfilled my duty to you. Goodbye Maria. Maria the human."
Knowing it would do no good whatsoever, I banged with every ounce of strength I still had on the metal door that was programmed to remain firmly locked till the escape pod reached Earth. The ARK had become a tiny speck hardly bigger than the stars by now, and I knew that even if a sick twelve year old girl could somehow break through two metres of well-alloyed titanium; it would only cause me to suffocate to death in the cold vaccum of space.
But emotion had gotten the better of me, and I punched and kicked till my fists were bruised and my feet were very sore. I bawled as I let all the tears I had kept to myself in the time I spent in ARK rain bitterly down my cheeks like twin cascading waterfalls, and roared like a wounded hyena.
Shadow was dead and grandfather was going to be given a fake trial designed only to appear fair, before a dehumanizing execution by firing squad. His name would become an insult, and his generous contributions to the world of science would be abused until everyone forgot all the good he had done.
Yet I had remained alive somehow. There were several tins of freeze-dried tomato soup and several bottles of sterilized water in the metal cabin I now found myself in that was drifting towards Earth. There were even several tablets each containing a special experimental serum that could temporarily neutralize the worst effects of my Neruo-Immunity-Deficiency-Disorder (NIDS).
I had been taking these periodically in the last few weeks in special tests, and they had proven to have had at least some semblence of success with no notable downsides. A doctor had monitored my intake of this miraculous drug that had finally been made available thanks to grandfather's endless devotion and efforts which had torn him apart from me far more than I was comfortable with.
The tests proved that each tablet would momentarily subdue the white blood cells in my bloodstream, which would prevent them from harming me for about nine hours before reverting to their active state once more. This was long enough for me to get a full nights sleep, and then quickly pop another tablet before even the faintest symptoms of my disorder flared up once more.
It meant I would have to be very careful about not contacting any other pathogens, but this was hardly different to the procedures underwent by patients who'd undergone an organ transplant had to do for the rest of their lives. It meant they could at least have some semblence of an ordinairy existence instead of just passing away on the spot with no hope at all.
Grandfather must have known that this awful day would come, even if he didn't know for sure when it would come. It made me cry all the harder as I just barely managed to avoid choking on the first of these pills as I swallowed one with the help of some cold water.
These pills were called immuno-suppresants. They existed on Earth, and they had proven an invaluable advancement in healthcare. But normal immuno-suppresants which I had tried previously would not work due to the seriousness of my condition; which was so rare as to affect only 1 in 32.13 million humans, and to have only a 1 in 193 chance of being passed on genetically.
Only this special type of immuno-suppresant would keep me alive now that I was no longer in the safety of Space Colony ARK.
I knew as I dried my tears after tightly clenching both fists for several minutes; that I had just one goal that topped all others when I succesfully made it to Earth.
I needed to go and find cousin Ivo. So I could get out of his sorrowful head and fall into his loving arms instead. He had most likely gotten incredibly depressed from our years apart, and I owed it to him to show him that not every other Robotnik despised him as his monstrously abusive parents and grandfather.
Earth's delightful flora and fauna awaited me. But cousin Ivo took precedence.
Chapter end.
...
Thank you for reading. Please review if you like this story and want me to keep it going. I think Maria is such a good character and that she deserves to be more than just a motivation for Shadow to destroy the Earth. I'm also trying to show that Shadow was at one point a much more kind and reasonable person before he lost Maria.